Sew What?
by tasukichiriko
Summary: Kanji gets roped into sewing. A lot. Somehow he finds out that he's kind of a legend for it and not just in Inaba.


Chie held up one sleeve with her eyes wide and a smile curving the corners of her mouth. "Kanji, this is amazing!"

Thumbing at his nose, Kanji smirked. "It's nothing special. You said you wanted it, so I wanted to help out."

"This... This goes way above what I asked for. This is almost identical to what the main character wears in 'Trial of the Dragon'!"

Kanji cleared his throat. "Well, I couldn't find an exact match on the fabric, so I had to embroider that myself and I didn't have a ton of time, so I didn't get a chance to put in all of the details, alright?"

Chie shook her head excitedly. "I'm saying this is great, Kanji! Better than I could have expected out of anyone!"

"You really think so, Chie-senpai?"

Her eyes gleaming, Chie nodded. "I think... I might actually enter the costume contest this year. And, you know what? I think I'm gonna win!"

Kanji refused her money at first, but ended up taking enough to cover the materials.

hr

Yu nudged Nanako forward. "You need to ask him yourself."

Nanako took a deep breath and played with the hem of her dress. "Um, I'm supposed to be a princess in a play at school next month and we're supposed to do our own costumes, but Dad can't sew and when I asked Big Bro, he said that you were the best at it, so can you?" She smoothed her dress back down. "Can you make me a princess outfit?"

Kanji grinned and pulled over a notebook and a pen. "Sure can, kid. What kind of princess outfit do you want?"

Nanako smiled and Kanji could see where her tongue poked through her smile where she seemed to have lost a tooth recently. "Um, something to match what Teddie wears? And then he could be my prince!"

"Well, a prince and a princess don't have to match all the time. So, what do you think would make Teddie like you the best? Blue? Yellow? Pink?"

In was almost an hour later that Yu managed to drag Nanako out of the textile shop, leaving Kanji with three pages of notes and sketches for one small dress for a primary school play. Resolute, Kanji sat forward and started making a list of things he needed to buy. This dress was going to all but deplete his sequins and that was unacceptable.

hr

Yosuke cleared his throat as he approached Kanji. "So, uh, I heard that Chie won that costume contest thing with the costume you made for her."

Kanji glared at Yosuke for a moment. "Yeah. What of it?"

"Well, uh, we've got this licensing thing going on with Phoenix Ranger Featherman R right now where we're supposed to have someone dressed up as one of the characters on weekends and my dad decided it would be me to do it, but the costume that Junes corporate sent is, like, WAY too big for me, so I wondered if maybe you could make one?"

Eyeing Yosuke up and down, Kanji said, "When do you need it for?"

Wrists crossing just slightly in front of his crotch, Yosuke cleared his throat. "Well, uh, it's supposed to start this weekend, but I guess I can wear that sucky costume one more time even though I tried it on yesterday and the pants are so thin that I have to wear long johns under them or people would be able to see my junk and it's getting so hot lately!"

With a laugh, Kanji went over to his closet and pulled out a garment bag. "Here. Treat it well."

Yosuke's eyebrows raised. "Wait, what?" He pulled down the zipper on the bag and his eyes widened. "Dude, did you read my mind or something?"

Kanji squirmed under Yosuke's gaze. "That's mine from a costume party thing last year. I made it for myself. But I'm too big for it now. Should fit you fine, though, senpai."

Yosuke's eyes widened. "Dude, this is soooo awesome. You should, like, sell these on the Internet!"

"Is... Is that even a thing?"

Zipping up the garment bag again, Yosuke laughed. "I take it you haven't heard of things like naughty nurse roleplaying? But there's plenty of non-sexy costumes you can get, too."

"I take it you've looked, then."

Yosuke's face paled. "Um, I was looking for a costume for Yu. He needed help finding one!"

With a snort, Kanji took the garment bag from Yosuke and hung it back up and grabbed another one. "I realized that Red Hawk wasn't gonna look good with your hair, senpai. So you can be White Swallow instead."

"Kanji!"

Kanji shrugged. "Hey, nothing wrong with buying a naughty nurse costume for your partner online."

Yosuke glared at him for a long moment, then his face softened. "Hey, how much would you charge to make one for him?"

"Uh, senpai..."

"Yeah?"

Kanji shook his head. "Let me get you an estimate."

hr

He couldn't seem to keep Yukiko from laughing. "Kanji, that's hilarious!"

Kanji covered the outfit back up. "Keep your voice down, senpai! Do you want everyone to come running?"

Breathing shallowly and still snorting, though not as loudly, Yukiko moved the cover back out of the way and ran her hand over it. "Teddie's going to love it, though."

His shoulders tense, Kanji tried to ignore just how much he wanted to pet the fabric, too. "Well, it's just that he grew and his bear outfit is too small on him, so I thought I'd give him an updated one that's a little easier to move around in and has some pockets on the inside. There's also a spot to put one of those camel bags so he can have some water in there when he's working at Junes or whatever."

Yukiko wiped at one eye and grinned. "It's really thoughtful of you, Kanji. Teddie's going to love it!"

Kanji toed the ground where a few strands of thread curled through the fibers of the rug. "Yeah, well, whatever. Stupid bear better let me pet him this time."

hr

Rise handed Kanji an envelope. "It's a contract," she said when he'd just stared at it for a minute.

He shook his head. "For what, though?"

"For your costuming work, Kanji! Now that I'm on that new drama about cosplayers, I'm supposed to be doing appearances at conventions and the quality of the work their people are doing is fine for TV, but for actually being in front of people? I need someone I can trust! And since you haven't blabbed to anyone yet that my bust size is a little smaller than what all of the official stuff says, I know I can trust you with my body, too."

Kanji grabbed a scrap of fabric from a bin by the side of the table he was sitting at and held it up to his nose. Rise looked away as she saw a hint of red bleed through the fabric. "Is that a yes?"

Holding the fabric away from his mouth, Kanji said, "Shouldn't you find someone better than me for something like that?"

Rise giggled. "Kanji, you're funny. You know how you've been selling those costumes online? The one-of-a-kind things? They're a legend in the cosplay world ialready/i! There's talk of mentioning you in an episode of the drama!"

Kanji let his hands fall to his sides and a thin trail of blood continued down his face. "Seriously?"

"You're practically famous, Kanji! So, I want to sign you to a contract to do all of my costumes for the conventions and to maybe come along with me sometimes? It would really support the show! ...And me!"

"Well, I guess it could be kind of cool... Wait a second, how much am I getting paid?" He tore open the envelope and skimmed over the contract quickly. "Man, I can make that much sewing cute clothes for you? Deal!"

Rise nearly danced as she handed Kanji a pen. 


End file.
